


Music's Calling

by Talliya



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-15
Updated: 2014-09-12
Packaged: 2018-01-15 19:13:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1316143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Talliya/pseuds/Talliya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's several years since they'd saved the world from Dekim Barton and things have changed...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Let the Sirens Sing

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own any rights to Gundam Wing or its characters. This work is not for profit.

“The light of a fading star, is what you wear, is what you are.” Trowa sang the words along with the radio the afternoon sun glinting off the bay windows to his seaside villa’s living room. He was currently cleaning the whole place, having recently returned home after his latest attempt to convince Quatre that Dorothy didn’t want flowers she just wanted his attention. The green eyed man was pretty sure he’d failed yet again, but Dorothy knew he’d tried. He was rather proud of his beachside home, having worked as a Preventer after the wars in order to earn it. It was his single greatest accomplishment, he’d designed it and helped build it with his own two hands, it was beautiful – and all /his/. His voice floated out across the sea from his open window – reaching ears that hadn’t heard his voice in several years...

Night fell and the moon cast its spell over the churning water around the slab of rock that Duo had been stranded on for the last two days. When they’d dumped him here, saying things like he needed to learn responsibility and stop acting like he’d saved the world in a gundam, because they all knew he wasn’t cut out for something like that. Bullshit, they didn’t know anything about him; though that was the point. However, Une hadn’t sent him undercover so that he could be marooned on an outcropping in the middle of who knows where. But as the sun began its descent from zenith he heard a familiar voice. He hadn’t seen the man in three years, hadn’t spoken to him in just as long and had /never/ heard him sing before, but Duo KNEW that it was Trowa he heard singing along with Flogging Molly. He continued listening as the sun set and the water and wind cooled his burning skin, then suddenly Lifehouse was booming from the other side of the rocks behind him. “I know you didn’t bring me out here to drown, so why am I ten feet under and upside down?” Duo’s voice carried across the night blackened surf...

Hearing a voice singing along with the music he’d been contentedly playing his flute too Trowa sat the instrument down and went outside - being guided by the sound of the beautiful voice coming to him across the waves. It sounded vaguely familiar, but he was having a hard time placing it. Suddenly it hit him and he raced into the waves, “DUO!?!”

Hearing his name called out had the braided man giving in and diving into the water, swimming around to see the modest villa house winking in the distance. When he reached a spot where he could touch he scanned the area for Trowa, finding the banged man splashing toward him through the surf he made a mad dash effort to reach the sand and Trowa. Falling after a particularly strong wave crashed into the backs of his legs he stood and moved toward Trowa’s open and waiting arms. “Trowa.” He hugged the other man tightly amused by the fact that he’d been only meters from help for a couple of days.

Trowa held onto the soaked former gundam pilot like he was a lifeline, other than Quatre - who was generally too busy to really see him - the former Heavyarms pilot hadn’t seen any of the others in years. “Duo.” Trowa leaned back a ways and looked at the bedraggled and obviously sunburned man in his arms, “What on earth are you doing out here?”

Duo hung his head, unable to meet the acrobat’s eyes because he’d failed his mission. Not only that, but it was a mission that Trowa would have excelled at, he /was/ the best when it came to infiltration and deception after all. Too bad he’d retired some three years ago. “A job went a little south. I’ve been out on that damn rock for two days already,” The cobalt eyes almost met green before skittering away again and he chuckled self-deprecatingly, “I seriously thought I was out in the middle of nowhere.”

“Meaning you haven’t eaten or had fresh water in two days?” Trowa deadpanned. “Why’d you start singing?” The inflection in his voice for this question let Duo know that he was simply curious as the man turned and wrapped an arm around his waist and began the trek back to the house.

“I heard you singing with Flogging Molly earlier, it took me a bit but I realized it was you. After that though, the only song I knew was the one by Lifehouse. And since you weren’t singing anymore, I thought you might be able to hear me. Though how you did so over the loud music I really don’t know.” He answered as they walked; entering the kitchen Duo looked around at the spacious and stocked with everything-one-could-possibly-need room. Deathscyth’s pilot grinned, “Think you’ve got enough?”

Trowa had gone into the living room and turned down the music, he came back smiling at Duo. “Never. It’s nice to know that I own it all. That I finally don’t have to want for anything.” The generally stoic man shrugged, “How’s ham and eggs sound?”

“Sounds amazing.” Duo wilted into a stool at the island bar in the center of the kitchen as his stomach growled rather loudly.

Trowa chuckled, “Good, cause it’s what I was planning on making already.” He winked at the braided man before grabbing out another plate and more eggs. He set to cracking eggs in a skillet and filling them with cheese, bits of onion, green peppers, celery and carrot slices. Dishing up the two omelets he pulled the ham from the oven and cut several slices, two to each plate. He sat one down in front of Duo and the other at the stool next to him. “What do you want to drink? Water, juice, milk?” He asked as he brought two glasses down from the cupboard.

“Umm, milk sounds good.” Duo was practically drooling, but he wanted to wait for Trowa, it was only polite after all.

Trowa grinned and filled both glasses with milk setting them down as he sat beside Duo. “Dig in Shin, there’s more if you’re still hungry when you’re done.” He gestured with his fork as he handed Duo his.

They ate in relative silence, Duo getting up and grabbing several more slices of ham, and then looking back at Trowa for permission to make another omelet – the silent question got a nod and the long haired still damp man made himself another. Once they were both full Trowa showed him to the second floor bathroom -complete with amenities - and left to get him something to wear. Coming back to the door Trowa knocked, not hearing water running like he’d thought he would. “Duo? You okay?”

“Yeah Tro, I’m fine. Come on in, I decided to fill the bath instead of taking a shower.” Duo’s voice drifted contentedly through the door.

Turning the handle Trowa entered the room to see that Duo hadn’t bothered to pull the curtain and was laid out in all his glory, nothing but water and stray floating hair covering his body. Trowa froze for half a second his eyes whipping to Duo’s, which were closed. Apparently his nudity didn’t bother him in the slightest, “I brought you a t-shirt and some sweatpants. I wasn’t sure if you’d want a pair of my underwear or not.” He set the folded clothing on the back of the toilet and then sat on the lid simply looking his friend over. Trowa kept telling himself that he was checking for any injuries. Even though he figured Duo would have mentioned them if he had any.

A smug smile crossed the chocolate and caramel haired man’s face, “Thanks Nash. Look all you want by the way. This tub is nice; I haven’t had a bath in a long time.”

Trowa jerked slightly and nearly choked on air at Duo’s words, but he didn’t bother to deny them. “You’re welcome Shin.” Trowa looked him over once more before rising from the seat and leaning over the tub, “You’re beautiful Duo.” He kissed the man’s forehead, “Soak all you want.” Then he left the room, closing the door quietly behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own no rights to The Light of a Fading Star by Flogging Molly or Storm by Lifehouse.


	2. Picture Day

When Duo left the bathroom in Trowa’s slightly too long sweats and the t-shirt that hugged his more bulky frame he headed straight for the living room where the music – which no longer seemed to be playing – had been located. However, while the radio didn’t seem to be on anymore, there was music; Duo could pick out the stirring sounds of a beautifully played violin mixed in with the exquisite counter point of Trowa’s flute as he got closer. It had him pausing in the hallway before he could fully see into the gigantic room that faced the ocean. Duo figured that Quatre was there, he was the only one he knew that could play the violin so well. And he was unaccountably angry at the thought that Quatre was there - he loved the Arabian, he was one of his best friends and he knew that he was even better friends with Trowa and that they often played music together. But telling himself this didn’t change his anger, that was what had him pausing, he really couldn’t understand why he was angry. Trowa certainly didn’t belong to him, he sometimes wished that he did, but the sometimes acrobat wasn’t his. He raised a hand to his forehead where Trowa’s lips had lain and ruefully shook his head. He knew that Trowa was at least bi like himself – he’d mentioned a boyfriend at one point - which is why he’d had no problem taunting the man when he was in the tub. But he’d always thought that Trowa had a thing for Quatre – that is until Quatre started dating Dorothy and told him that it was Trowa who’d finally convinced him to go for it. After that he’d thought that maybe he might have a chance with the Heavyarms pilot, but the man had had a girlfriend last he checked. Duo hadn’t realized he’d started pouting until his subconscious yelled at him. /Get a grip Maxwell!/ Shinigami snapping at him had him raising his eyes from their contemplative stare at the carpet and forcing himself to walk into the room.

Coming around the corner Duo paused in the act of opening his mouth and saying hi to Quatre, the man wasn’t there. Trowa was facing out the window, his back to Duo as he played his flute with a recording. It took Duo a couple of seconds to get over the mixed feelings about being mad at Quatre for being there and then being mad at Quatre for not being there before he recognized the song. He picked up where he thought Trowa might be at in the song and began singing, “How Bess, the landlord's daughter, the landlord's black-eyed daughter, had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there...”

Trowa startled and the sound of the flute cut off as Duo continued to sing the song with the violin recording. He found the brunette’s reflection in the window and smiled before resuming his antics with the flute. He loved the sound of Duo’s voice, it ghosted over and through him like the sun’s rays through a window pane. He shuddered slightly as he remembered the braided man giving him permission to look at him while he bathed. The song ended as the thought crossed his mind and he looked Duo over in the glass, “You want a hair brush?”

Duo’s hair hung in a damp tangled mass down his back, “That would be fantastic actually.” The ex-pilot grinned self-consciously at Trowa as the green eyed man put his flute away and turned the recording off. “This place is beautiful.”

Trowa looked over at Duo and smiled, “Thank you. I’ll be right back.” He left the room and headed back up the stairs to grab a hairbrush. Re-entering the room he saw that Duo had obviously wandered around, he was holding a picture frame from the fireplace mantle on one side of the big open room but was sitting on the couch on the opposite side. Trowa grinned, “You can’t ever be still for long can you?”

Duo jumped, not having heard the Silencer as he approached his position on the couch, he grinned sheepishly, “Nope.” He glanced at the brush in Trowa’s hand before looking down at the picture again. “When was this taken?”

Trowa glanced down at the picture and blushed; he’d forgotten he had that one out here. Quatre always teased him about it, knowing that Trowa had had a crush on the God of Death since he’d first met the boy. The picture was of Duo eating ice cream, he had mint dabbed on his nose and bubblegum smeared across his cheekbone. When Wufei had taken the photo initially it had had all three pilots in it – Duo, Trowa and Quatre – but Quatre had taken his copy and cropped himself and Trowa out and given the picture of Duo to Trowa as a birthday present a couple years ago. The mint on Duo’s nose had been from Trowa’s ice cream cone and the bubblegum streak from Quatre’s. Duo was eating chocolate – Wufei had had vanilla. In the full picture Quatre had vanilla on his cheek and chocolate on his chin, and Trowa had chocolate on his nose and bubblegum on his chin; Wufei had started it all by tapping Quatre with his but then backed away quickly and took out his camera. Trowa kept his copy of the whole picture in his wallet; it had been taken at their little get together for his retirement some three years ago. Heero hadn’t been able to make it, but they’d bought him a carton of his favorite blueberry ice cream for when he got back.

“You don’t remember that?” Trowa asked after a moment.

“Umm, not really. I eat ice cream a lot... and Wufei and Heero tend to get into ice cream fights a lot.” Duo scratched the back of his head in a nervous gesture, somehow he felt bad that he didn’t remember this.

“Well maybe this will help you out.” Trowa smiled and pulled out the picture from his wallet and handed it to Duo. He sat down on the couch next to the man, laying the brush across his lap.

Duo took the picture and looked at it for half a second before his eyes widened and he looked ready to bolt from the room. He remembered now, it was the first time he’d ever seen Trowa do anything goofy – when Trowa had leaned across the little table they were seated around and put his cold green ice cream on his nose Duo had almost gone into shock. The look on his own face in the picture though, after he’d got his revenge on both Trowa and Quatre was what had him wanting to run from the room. To anyone but him it probably looked like he was simply enjoying the rest of his ice cream after achieving victory, but Duo knew better, he was looking straight at Trowa with his heart in his eyes. It took him several moments before he could calm himself down, finally realizing that Trowa had probably had these pictures for years now and he’d never made anything out of it, so he probably didn’t know.

Trowa had been a bit startled by Duo’s reaction to the photo and watched tensely as the braided man slowly lost his panicked edge. “You okay Duo?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Sorry.” Duo looked over at him before handing back the small picture containing the three of them. He gestured to the frame in his hand, “How come this one’s cropped down to just me?”

Trowa chuckled, “You’d have to ask Quatre that one. He gave me that for my birthday a couple years ago. I’d told him I didn’t want anything extravagant or flashy; I wanted something that told me he understood me. I figured I’d get less hassle if I tagged on that last bit.” Trowa smiled ruefully reflecting on the pout Quatre had given him about his present not being expensive. Heck the blonde had pouted when Trowa had opened the gift, saying that he would have preferred to give him something more sophisticated, but Trowa had loved it, he’d sat there staring at it for ten minutes before Quatre had smacked him and taken the picture away and placed it on the mantle. Where it had stayed until Duo found it.

“You told him to give you something that proved he understood you and he gave you a doofy picture of me?” Duo was a bit confused on that score.

“Well yeah. That was the day I could let the Silencer go. I didn’t have to be a mercenary any more, I wasn’t a Gundam pilot, I wasn’t a Preventer, I wasn’t a keeper of the peace. While I could go back to the circus, and any time that they are in the area I do join the show, I didn’t have to be an actor anymore. I could finally figure out who ‘I’ am. The fact that I joined in on the ice cream fight was proof of that. However, you were the only person I attacked... I guess that’s why he cropped it.” Trowa shrugged helplessly, he knew he could lie with the best of them and his excuses would probably be something that Quatre would agree with, but he knew that wasn’t why Quatre had done it. The picture had honestly proved exactly how well Quatre did know him, and lying to Duo wasn’t as easy as all that. After all, while Trowa could lie with the best of them, Duo was the best lie detector in the solar system. Trowa had always admired him for that: Duo would never lie, but he never gave anything away either. Trowa wasn’t that good, but he could act. So he pulled on a mask, something he hadn’t done in a while, and turned to the man next to him whose eyes were still glued to the picture in his hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own no rights to The Highwayman by Loreena McKennitt.


	3. A Hairy Situation

Duo turned to his friend with a serious expression as he held the picture to his chest, “Tro, would... would you freak out if you found out someone you knew was in love with you?” He winced and looked quickly down at his lap... that hadn’t been what he was going to say! Where did that even come from?! But his mind answered his own internal question: he wanted to know if Trowa was going to freak out about /him/ being in love with him.

Trowa blinked at him for a second, “I really couldn’t say. I also couldn’t tell you that the ‘freak out’ would be good or bad if it did happen.” Trowa wasn’t really sure where this was going, but he hoped it was somewhere he’d like.

Duo froze, he didn’t know? Well that was reasonable; it was a rather random question after all. But then he saw something flash through Trowa’s eyes, yearning? Was he dreaming? Yeah! That was it, Duo Maxwell was asleep. He stood up abruptly and replaced the photo on the mantel before turning back to Trowa, “Could I use your phone? I need to call Colonel Une and let her know that I basically failed my mission.”

Trowa blinked again and gestured down the hall Duo had come out of earlier, “Yeah sure, there’s a secure line in my office just around the corner at the base of the staircase.” He’d hoped that Duo was going to say that he was in love with him and that’s why he’d asked, but from the worried expression on his face and the way the braided man went all business with him, apparently he’d guessed wrong. He sighed and leaned back into his couch fiddling with the brush in his lap after Duo disappeared down the hall.

Duo raced from the room his tangle of wet hair soaking his borrowed shirt currently forgotten, he took a few seconds once he reached Trowa’s office to catch his breath. He couldn’t believe he had said something like that! Then just abruptly changed the subject, could he be any more of a jackass? Face-palming he sat down in the very nice leather chair behind Trowa’s gigantic hardwood desk and picked up the phone. He dialed his boss and waited for his lecture:

_Ring, ring, ring~_

“Hello?” The voice on the other line seemed extremely confused.

“Sorry Ma’am, this is Duo. I’m reporting in.” There was a muffled crashing sound on the other end followed by mad scrabbling and Duo knew he was in for it.

Another line picked up and WuFei let him have it, “Where the hell are you Maxwell? That damn ship you were _supposed_ to be on came in yesterday. Without you! They said you’d deserted.”

The fact that WuFei was obviously more worried about him than mad gave Duo a moment of pause before he could summon an answer. “I’m currently at Trowa’s...”

There were several intakes of breath and Duo could picture the smiles on their smug little faces for which he rolled his eyes, though he couldn’t banish the blush. “So, how did you end up there?” Une asked him, with obviously suppressed delight. Duo really hated it that his boss could see right through him, especially since he initially hated her so much...and she didn’t like him either. Being on opposite sides of a war does that.

“Those pirates marooned me on a rock which I thought was in the middle of nowhere. The little outcropping I was on didn’t stretch enough in any direction to tell me what was behind me. I was out there for two days. Then today I heard music, and Trowa singing. At least that’s who I thought it was, I seriously thought I was hallucinating, but apparently not. I started singing along and now here I am.” Duo bowed his head, “Saved by a guy who doesn’t even do things like this anymore.”

“Bullshit.” WuFei’s voice hit him like a physical slap, “Just because Barton no longer works as a Keeper of the Peace doesn’t mean he has stopped saving people who are in need.”

“Yes I heard he just left from another session of trying to convince Quatre that all Dorothy needs is his attention once in a while.” Une murmured.

Duo had to smile at that, Quatre was pretty thick sometimes. Suddenly both of them lit into him about hooking up with Trowa since he was there. Duo hit his head on the desk several times before resting it there and singing, “And if you ask me if I love him, I’d lie.”

Both of his antagonizers fell silent. “Well you’ll need time to recuperate I’m sure. You must be massively sunburned.” Une started.

“Thanks for reminding me, now I hurt all over.” Duo groaned.

Une simply laughed at him, “So you have time off until you feel ready to work again. We just won’t give you any more undercover missions. You did after all request to never do them. And now I know why.”

Duo glared at the phone as it clicked in his ear, his boss having hung up on him.

While Duo was using his phone Trowa had gone upstairs and grabbed the man’s clothes and thrown them in the wash, he had left the brush on a side table in the hallway between his office and the living room. He came back up from the basement with a load of his own clothing to fold just as Duo emerged from his office. Duo’s back was too him as he shut the office door and headed back toward the living room, “Hey.”

Duo jumped and spun to face him with wide eyes. Trowa grinned, “Sorry. I put your cloths in the wash, the hair brush is on the table next to you.” Trowa flowed up the rest of the stairs and walked past Duo to the set that led upstairs while the long haired man turned to find the brush.

Taking the brush in hand Duo simply followed Trowa up the stairs, though he stopped in the doorway when Trowa headed into his bedroom. It was a sprawling room with huge floor to ceiling windows that looked out onto a balcony and the beach. There was a huge four poster bed taking up the middle of one wall to the left, there was a door not far away from it that Duo guessed was the master bathroom. There was a large bureau against the wall opposite the side of the bed which Trowa dropped the basket of clothing in front of.

“You can come in you know.” Trowa’s voice startled him yet again and he flinched slightly and looked up from the man’s ass to his face...which was smirking at him.

Duo blushed and entered the spacious room, “You’re whole house is seriously amazing. Thanks for helping me out by the way.”

Trowa simply smiled, “It’s my pleasure. You gonna need help with that mess?”

It took Duo a moment to register the question as he had been watching Trowa fold and put away his laundry. “Mess?”

Exasperated Trowa rolled his eyes and turned to face Duo, “You’re hair.”

“Right.” Duo brought the brush in his hand up to eye level, “You sure this brush can handle it?” He asked jokingly as he began to brush out the ends of his hair, wincing when it snagged on a snarl. He sat down on the floor abruptly and started attack the knot in his hair.

Trowa smiled and finished putting his clothes away before moving over behind Duo and sitting down. He grabbed the brush and yanked it out of tightly gripping fingers earning him a hiss of pain and a glare, “Let me, you’ll go bald yanking at it like that.”

“Jerk.” Duo sniffed but turned his back to Trowa and let him brush out his hair.

“You say the sweetest things to people who are just trying to look out for you.” Trowa leaned forward and kissed Duo’s cheek as he worked the brush through his drying hair. They sat that way for long moments as Trowa got all the tangles out, then several more as he enjoyed just sliding the brush through the silky mass. For Duo’s part he was in shock for a while after the kiss on the cheek, his snarky remark to Trowa’s response to be called a jerk failing to remain with him after the light brush of lips on his skin. Then he was nearly lulled to sleep by the brush in his hair - his jaw cracking on a yawn is what brought him back to reality. Trowa chuckled lightly, “Sorry, I’d forgotten it was so late. And you’ve had a rough couple of days. There’s a spare room just across the hall. Or...never mind.” Trowa shook his head and stood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own no rights to Taylor Swift's "I'd Lie".


End file.
